Securities Law Commons^™

5th Annual Innovation And Technology Law Conference: Deep Innovation Dives, Steven W. Bender

SITIE Symposiums

Steven W. Bender, Seattle University School of Law Professor and organizer of the SITIE Symposium series, details the history of the SITIE symposiums and the 2022 proceedings. He discusses how this year's symposium builds on themes and issues raised in previous symposiums and looks ahead to the 2023 SITIE symposium.

Regulating Fraud On The Marketplace Of Ideas: Federal Securities Law As A Model For Constitutionally Permissible Social Media Regulation, Michael M. Epstein

Seattle University Law Review

This article begins with an introduction discussing speech falsity and the duty under U.S. law by comparing commercial and noncommercial speech. Part I explores the problem of online disinformation. Part II addresses online disinformation in a non-commercial context. Part III contains three subsections assesses non-transactional commercial speech as a basis for non-commercial disinformation regulation. Part IV advocates for a fiduciary duty to fashion a remedy. Part V of this article concludes by suggesting a possible solution for creating a online disinformation law that could survive the First Amendment.

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

The Extraterritorial Reach Of Section 10(B): A Wolf Hunt Off Wall Street, Radley Gillis

Emory Law Journal

Born to combat the market effects of the Great Depression, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 protects American investors and maintains American confidence in the U.S. securities market. These objectives are largely accomplished through the imposition of liability from Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and the SEC’s Rule 10b-5. These federal laws impose civil and criminal penalties for domestic insider trading and securities fraud violations. Because Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 only apply domestically, when securities violations occur both within the United States and abroad, the reach of federal law becomes questionable, leaving federal courts with a complex …

War & The Constitution: Chemical Agents And The Rights Of Protestors, Yomidalys GüIchardo Morel

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Session 3: Access To Financial Services - The Promise (And Challenges) Of Fintech, Joseph M. Vincent, Chris Adams, Lucinda Fazio, Roberta Hollinshead, Sumit Mallick, Sands Mckinley, Jonice Gray Tucker, Tonita Webb

SITIE Symposiums

For many Americans, the American Dream is a dream deferred. Recently, there has been an explosion in demand for diversity, equity, and inclusion in financial services. This has coincided with an explosion of a different kind related to delivering financial services through innovations in technology, otherwise known as FinTech. We have seen a plethora of FinTech applications on our smartphones, ranging from online lending to remote deposit making. While these applications provide potential opportunities to level the playing field for those whose dream has been deferred, there remain challenges.

Session 2: Access To Health And Health Services Panel - The Covid-19 Experience, Annette Clark, Wendy Chalres, Dan Laster, Anna Santos Rutschman, Madhavi Sunder, Margret Chon

SITIE Symposiums

COVID-19 has had a massive impact on the U.S. and the world regarding health care and health care access. Improving access has been the topic of scholarship for many years. It took the COVID- 19 pandemic to bring these issues to the forefront of public discussion. Inequities in public health access, not only domestically but globally, have become apparent in the light of COVID-19. This expert panel addresses the inequities of vaccines worldwide and the concept of vaccine sharing programs. It also explores the role that intellectual property plays in these equity issues and some of the risks inherent in …

Session 1: Access To Legal Services - The Role Of Innovation And Technology, Steven Bender, Stacy Butler, Anna Carpenter, Michael Cherry, Sands Mckinley, Kimball Dean Parker, Miguel Willis

SITIE Symposiums

This expert panel is addressing access to justice problems. People without access to lawyers and legal services suffer in many ways not limited to divorce, domestic violence, and educational roadblocks. This panel will ask what lawyers can do to help, in what ways can technology help or replace lawyers in the delivery of legal and non-legal services. It will also explore different legal services being offered by individuals who do not have a JD, online firms, and developing technology in a law firm owed subsidiary. There are six panelists who are broken into two categories: (1) the innovation and delivery …

Opening Session, Annette Clark, Steven Bender

SITIE Symposiums

This year's conference focuses on the social good, highlighting three access barriers fundamental in law and society - access to legal services (and more generally, justice), access to health and health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, and access to financial services for the unbanked or underbanked.

A Historical Analysis Of The Investment Company Act Of 1940, Michael B. Weiner

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

More than 100 million Americans invest $25 trillion in mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (collectively, “funds”) regulated by the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “Act”), making funds the predominant investment vehicle in the United States. Everyday investors rely on funds to save for retirement, pay for college, and seek financial security. In this way, funds demonstrate how “Wall Street” can connect with “Main Street” to improve people’s lives.

By way of background, funds are created by investment advisers (“advisers”) that provide investment advisory (e.g., stock selection) and other services to their funds in exchange for a fee. …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents and Special Thanks.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Securing Crypto: Exempting Certain Cryptoassets From The Arkansas Securities Act, Jesse Kloss

Arkansas Law Review

Out of fifty states in 2019, Arkansas was ranked forty-fourth for technology and innovation with a grade of “F,” thirty-sixth for economy with a grade of “D+,” and thirty-seventh for business friendliness with a grade of “D+.” It is time to make Arkansas an innovation and business friendly state. Exempting certain fully functional cryptoassets, those that have some purpose other than a speculative or investment purpose, from the Arkansas Securities Act is one step towards doing so.

Enough Is As Good As A Feast, Noah C. Chauvin

Seattle University Law Review

Ipse Dixit, the podcast on legal scholarship, provides a valuable service to the legal community and particularly to the legal academy. The podcast’s hosts skillfully interview guests about their legal and law-related scholarship, helping those guests communicate their ideas clearly and concisely. In this review essay, I argue that Ipse Dixit has made a major contribution to legal scholarship by demonstrating in its interview episodes that law review articles are neither the only nor the best way of communicating scholarly ideas. This contribution should be considered “scholarship,” because one of the primary goals of scholarship is to communicate new ideas.

A False Sense Of Security: How Congress And The Sec Are Dropping The Ball On Cryptocurrency, Tessa E. Shurr

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Today, companies use blockchain technology and digital assets for a variety of purposes. This Comment analyzes the digital token. If the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) views a digital token as a security, then the issuer of the digital token must comply with the registration and extensive disclosure requirements of federal securities laws.

To determine whether a digital asset is a security, the SEC relies on the test that the Supreme Court established in SEC v. W.J. Howey Co. Rather than enforcing a statute or agency rule, the SEC enforces securities laws by applying the Howey test on a fact-intensive …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Utility Token Offerings: Can A Security Transform Into A Non-Security?, Scott W. Maughan

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federal Forum Provisions And The Internal Affairs Doctrine, Dhruv Aggarwal, Albert H. Choi, Ofer Eldar

Articles

A key question at the intersection of state and federal law is whether corpo- rations can use their charters or bylaws to restrict securities litigation to federal court. In December 2018, the Delaware Chancery Court answered this question in the negative in the landmark decision Sciabacucchi v. Salzberg. The court invalidated “federal forum provisions” (“FFPs”) that allow companies to select federal district courts as the exclusive venue for claims brought under the Secur- ities Act of 1933 (“1933 Act”). The decision held that the internal affairs doc- trine, which is the bedrock of U.S. corporate law, does not permit charter …

Profiteering Off Public Health Crises: The Viable Cure For Congressional Insider Trading, Charles L. Slamowitz

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

This article takes an approachable, forward-thinking, and academic dive into congressional insider trading in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. After a confidential briefing by the Senate Health Committee warned of COVID-19, massive stock sell-offs by members of Congress and their spouses suddenly ensued. Some senators even publicly disparaged COVID-19’s viral effects while their own shares were being offloaded. By the time the American people were made aware of its dangers, vast investment holdings by congressional insiders had already been sold. Shockingly, it is unclear if congressional insiders trading on confidential coronavirus information are actually breaking the law. Congress …

Revising The Debt Limit For “Small Business Debtors”: The Legislative Half-Measure Of The Small Business Reorganization Act, Michael C. Blackmon

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Bankruptcy law changed drastically in 2019 with the passage of several bills. This Note will examine two of them. First, the Family Farmer Relief Act of 2019 raised the debt limit of the family farmer from $4,411,400 to $10,000,000. This enables more financially distressed family farmers to be eligible for Chapter 12 relief, a reorganizational tool designed for farmers. Second, the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 created Subchapter V – Small Business Debtor Reorganization in Chapter 11. This new Subchapter streamlined the reorganization process for small business debtors by removing roadblocks which often derail a reorganization of a small …

Session 6: Innovating The Built Environment Post-Covid-19, Marc Palatucci, Richard Lyall, Timothy Harris, Steven Bender, Peter Smirniotopoulos, Ryan Mathesin

SITIE Symposiums

ABSTRACT: Innovating the Built Environment for a Post-COVID-19 World

It would seem an act of academic malpractice to teach a course titled Innovating the Built Environment: How the Law Responds to Disruptive Change, and host an all-day symposium as an integral part of that course, and not endeavor to address the most-disruptive thing to happen to the built environment in more than 100 years: The coronavirus pandemic. This "disruption" to real estate is the proverbial elephant in the room. Hopefully, it will maintain a minimum six-foot distance from others as we address how it impacts the four Special Topics …

Session 5: Real Estate Tokenization, Joseph Vincent, Steven Bender, Peter Smirniotopoulos

SITIE Symposiums

ABSTRACT: Is “tokenization” the next great leap forward needed to make homeownership more appealing to Millennials and Gen Z’s?

If single-family homeownership and time-sharing had a love child, what would it look like? Is it possible to adapt successful models for office sharing to homeownership so renters who lament not owning an appreciating asset could have a stake in “something” while not being tied down to one specific residential structure or a single geographic location, to make homeownership more attractive to younger generations? And, if so, does blockchain technology hold the key (pun intended) to fractional ownerships in real …

Session 4: Atlanta Beltline, Art Lansing, Rob Turner, Jim Langford, Kristen Lohse, Claire Martini

SITIE Symposiums

ABSTRACT: What Would it Take to Connect All of Greater Seattle’s Neighborhoods with Walking and Biking Trails?

Major U.S. cities have endeavored, independently of each other, over the past several decades to create greenway systems connecting residents and visitors with neighborhoods and attractions, increasing opportunities for walking and biking and reducing their reliance on vehicular traffic. Atlanta’s BeltLine--a twenty-two-mile loop of historic railroad right-of-ways encircling the city’s downtown and midtown areas, seeks to reinvent the city if transformed into a green corridor—is perhaps one of the best examples of how a Seattle Greenway might be accomplished (although Atlanta’s concerted …

Session 3: Virtual Luncheon Session, Student Submissions

SITIE Symposiums

A Working Lunch brainstorming discussion, moderated by Professor Smirniotopoulos, to discuss “What Comes Next?” in the context of Innovating the Built Environment: How the Law Responds to Disruptive Change.

Registered students in Prof. Smirniotopoulos’s Innovating the Built Environment course will take one-to-two minutes each to present their initial project ideas for their Final Projects in the course, as well as outlining and moderating a discussion of the Challenges and Opportunities presented by their ideas. Symposium participants are encouraged to set up lunch in front of their computers and participate actively in discussing each student’s project idea, providing relevant …

Session 2: Wework, Ryan Mathisen, Peter Smirniotopoulos, Paul Swegle

SITIE Symposiums

ABSTRACT: When Worlds Collide: How an 86-Year Old Federal Law (The Securities Act of 1933) Exposed the Flaws in WeWork’s “Innovative Business Model.”

Co-working pioneer WeWork, a wholly owned subsidiary of The We Company, grew meteorically through an extremely aggressive building and master-lease acquisition strategy over the past several years. Substantial, early stage funding from SoftBank, a Japan-based high-tech venture capital investment bank, reinforced WeWork’s unicorn status. But was WeWork’s business model truly unique, bringing with it the promise of a very profitable real estate operating company in the future? Or was it the company’s early stage, venture …

Session 1: Crew Seattle Presentation, Emily Alvarado, Jeanne Marie Coronado, Tory Laughlin Taylor, Colin Morgan-Cross

SITIE Symposiums

ABSTRACT: Is there Still a Place in Seattle for the Single-Family Detached Housing Typology, Given the Acute Need for Affordable Housing?

This expert panel will explore the intersection between existing zoning laws and well-established neighborhood patterns of development, on the one hand, and the acute need for the increased production and availability of affordable housing, in the greater Seattle area, including in and near the City of Seattle’s Central Business District, as well as other close-in employment centers, on the other hand. The genesis of this Special Topic in the Innovating the Built Environment SITIE2020 course came out of …

Opening Session, Annette Clark, Steven Bender, Peter Smirniotopoulos

SITIE Symposiums

The SITIE2020 Symposium: Innovating the Built Environment was offered entirely online, through the Zoom platform. Each of six (6) symposium sessions, outlined below, were offered in a continuous Zoom session with breaks throughout the day, allowing our audience to select those sessions of greatest interest to them. Students enrolled in Professor Smirniotopoulos’s Summer Institute course—Innovating the Built Environment: How the Law Responds to Disruptive Change—participated all day.

Proceedings Of The Sitie2020 Symposium, Seattle Journal Of Technology, Environmental, And Innovation Law

SITIE Symposiums

Complete Summary of Proceedings.

Gatekeeping The Gatekeepers: The Need For A Licensing Requirement For Crowdfunding Portals In The Wake Of The Dreamfunded Decision, Nick Worden

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

Most people are familiar with crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and GoFundMe—sites that allow users to part with their money in exchange for products or donate their capital to organizations they believe in. However, these sites have one trait in common: they do not offer contributors equity or a promise for future profits. For a long time, selling equity meant complying with the costly requirements of federal securities laws, which was cost-prohibitive for many small businesses; it was illegal for businesses to offer equity over a site in the way businesses on Kickstarter offered products. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups …

In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth

Seattle University Law Review

Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.